Argentina : Building business-university partnerships (25 March 2015)

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How can we work together to train the high-level engineers and technicians required by industry? What tools do we have as part of French-Argentine cooperation to meet the demand for training high-level engineers and technicians in these strategic economic sectors?

In order to fully answer these questions, the French Embassy in Argentina held its inaugural Business-Universities Forum in 2013, under its bilateral cooperation framework and to further its economic diplomacy.

This initiative was a response to economic issues in priority sectors for both countries which enabled new possibilities to be explored for bilateral cooperation: today, a campus project is taking shape.

Forum objective: open dialogue between industry and academia

Present mechanisms for business and innovation like Campus Pro International (French model of excellence) and the technology platform;

Introduce businesses to French university cooperation programmes to encourage them to provide universities with financial support;

Implement projects in the form of sector-based round tables, one of which led to the creation of a training centre for aeronautics, automobiles and agricultural technology.

Dialogue launched and perspectives opened

This forum was very well received by businesses with whom this theme struck a chord. Furthermore, the discussion process which was put in place gave them ample opportunity to state their needs. The Argentinian partners were excellent hosts who are working to link together industry and training, drawing inspiration from French expertise.

The forum enabled practical support to be provided for a national plan to train engineers, for which the institutional partners had requested the help of the French Embassy. The idea of a campus emerged, which will meet businesses’ human resource needs.

Actors and partnerships forged

The forum’s programme was drawn up by the French Embassy in partnership with:

the Argentinian Ministry of Education,

the Argentinian Ministry of Science and Technology,

the French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research (MENESR)

and French businesses in Argentina, in particular Dassault Systèmes.The Argentinian Ministry of Education will fund the building which will contain the training centre. The MESNER will provide a French expert for the training centre for technicians and engineers. The Institut français in Argentina will fund the assessment missions. Dassault Systèmes will make its technology available and PSA, GDF SUEZ, Michelin and other companies will be invited to contribute by providing the training centre with practical case studies to analyze and solve.

The presence in the region of Dassault Systèmes, both in its work with businesses and universities which take over the model was an essential prerequisite for the creation of this training centre. The interest and involvement of businesses is also crucial for such partnerships to come to fruition. The interest of the economic sector, more so than that of academia whose goodwill alone is not sufficient, must be confirmed in order to build momentum and encourage businesses to take a proactive approach.

Latest news

Construction work on the campus began in February.

The training centre for technicians and engineers to use computer technology by Dassault Systèmes for modelling product life-cycles will be open to all universities in the region as well as to many sectors of activity via their associations.